Tums, that's a good idea but it only tells half the story. You also need to know the latency from IB to the exchange from each location. IB most likely will have a direct high speed link to each of the exchanges networks in Europe which will then be connected directly to the exchange with another high speed transatlantic link which will be much faster than the Internet. So you need to add that latency to your latency to IB to really know which is best. Unfortunately only IB will be able to provide the second half of the equation.
You can find your server by going to the folder c:\jts and looking for the log.xxxxxx files (one for each day). After about 5 lines you get: KA 07:59:43:773 JTS-Main: Started on 20080417-21:59:43 KA 07:59:43:773 JTS-Main: Build 882.2, Feb 21, 2008 10:08:07 AM KA 07:59:43:776 JTS-Main: applet = false KA 07:59:43:776 JTS-Main: java version = 1.6.0_04 KA 07:59:43:776 JTS-Main: os = Windows XP KA 07:59:43:776 JTS-Main: host = gw1.ibllc.com.hk That last one tells you I'm hosted off hk.
Thanks Kiwi! My line reads: host = gw1.ibllc.com which I suppose means the US server. Pinging gives me a response time of 104 ms which I guess is OK.
Ping The Ping command will test the quality and latency of your connection. If it shows 4 round-trip reports without a reply (does not say not found, timed out, etc.) your connection is healthy. To use this, type ping gw1.ibllc.com at the command prompt. A healthy ping should look as follows: Pinging gw1.ibllc.com [208.245.107.3] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 208.245.107.3: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=254 Reply from 208.245.107.3: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=254 Reply from 208.245.107.3: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=254 Reply from 208.245.107.3: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=254 If the ping results show excessive latency (>500ms), timeouts/packet loss, or no replies, a network problem exists between you and the IB network. Trace Route The tracert command is used to isolate routing issues. This will show you all of the âhopsâ from your connection to our network. A timeout, indicated by â*â or time above 200, indicates a slow or dead hop and may be a problem. Over 15 hops can also be a problem. To look at a traceroute, type tracert gw1.ibllc.com at the command prompt. The following are sample traceroutes. Included is an explanation and suggested course of action. This traceroute is an example of a healthy connection. The ping times and the number of hops are low (lower is better). No course of action required. 1 gatekeeper (206.42.160.1) 1 ms 1 ms 2 ms 2 jfk-edge-19.inet.qwest.net (63.237.128.53) 19 ms 26 ms 21 ms 3 jfk-core-03.inet.qwest.net (205.171.30.189) 22 ms 19 ms 24 ms 4 ewr-core-03.inet.qwest.net (205.171.5.89) 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms 5 ewr-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.17.98) 20 ms 26 ms 19 ms 6 205.171.1.122 (205.171.1.122) 30 ms 20 ms 22 ms 7 sl-bb23-nyc-3-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.7.109) 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms 8 sl-bb22-pen-6-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.9.18) 25 ms 37 ms 21 ms 9 sl-bb26-pen-9-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.16.58) 21 ms 26 ms 22 ms 10 sl-gw26-pen-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.190) 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 11 sl-thllc-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.190.222) 35 ms 31 ms 29 ms 12 206.106.137.111 (206.106.137.111) 28 ms 28 ms 30 ms http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/faqs/technical.php?ib_entity=llc go down to about the end of the page... look for the Ping heading.